In this image released by NBC, Sofie Dossi performs on an episode of the talent competition series, "America's Got Talent." Boosted by “America’s Got Talent,” NBC led the networks overall with a prime-time average of 4.9 million viewers. (Trae Patton/NBC via AP)

By

Frazier Moore, Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP)

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Viewers chose cable news over broadcast TV for coverage of the Republican National Convention last week, with the Nielsen Top 20 claiming eight cable programs focused on the GOP confab.

Among the cable news networks, it was Fox News Channel’s week in particular to shine even as it reeled from the ouster of its founding father, Roger Ailes, accused of sexual harassment.

Besides its flurry of high-ranking individual programs, Fox News ranked No. 1 by far in prime-time among cable networks, averaging 4.1 million viewers. And it was second among all networks, cable or broadcast, behind only by NBC.

Meanwhile, CNN, the week’s second-most-watched cable network, drew an average of 2.4 million viewers with its GOP coverage.

Among the networks overall, NBC led with a prime-time average of 5.1 million viewers, for what NBC says is its longest winning streak, excluding Olympics coverage, in 14 years. Last week’s top two shows were editions of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

But Fox News took the third and fourth slots with its coverage of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s acceptance speech. For the week, Fox News’ 4.1 million average was followed by CBS with 4.0 million. ABC had 3.8 million and CNN had 2.4 million, with the Fox Broadcasting network right behind 2.2 million.

Univision had 1.7 million viewers, Telemundo had 1.5 million, followed by MSNBC — the third member of the cable-news trio — with 1.4 million. After that, ION Television had 1.2 million, and the CW had 890,000 viewers.

In the evening news derby, NBC’s “Nightly News” held the top spot in a squeaker with 7.56 million viewers, followed by ABC’s “World News Tonight” with 7.50 million. The “CBS Evening News” had 6.09 million.

Below are primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 18-24. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.